Australia's Batsmen Are Crumbling Again In First Test Against Bangladesh

The home nation set a run-chase target of 264.

There's been both good news and bad news for Australia on day three of the first Test against Bangladesh at Dhaka on Tuesday.

The good news is that Aussie spinner Nathan Lyon continued his mighty effort with the ball from day one to take six wickets as the visitors bowled Bangladesh all-out for 221 with a lead of 264 just after the tea break.

With catch after catch coming from Lyon's spinning skill, there were moments in Bangladesh's second innings where it looked like Australia might claw their way back into this Test. But with that said, there were also moments of doubt.

One of those moments came when Australian paceman Josh Hazlewood left the pitch midway through play with what seemed like an injury to his side that became apparent in just his second over of the day.

With two fast bowlers and two spinners in its arsenal against the Bangladeshi batsmen, it wasn't exactly the loss Australia needed and a strong 78 runs from Bangladeshi opener Tamim Iqbal and 41 from Mushfiqur Rahim saw the Aussies put more or less in the same position they were in at the start of day two.

Australia now needs to score 265 runs to win the first Test -- and in case you've forgotten, the visitors only managed to notch up 217 in their first innings.

The run-chase total also comes as Australia's second-highest fourth-innings target for a Test in Asia, meaning the picture is starting to look as bleak as it seems, unless its batsmen can turn things around.

With openers David Warner and Matt Renshaw back out in the centre for their second innings, Australia's hopes of victory were entirely within its own hands.

But things didn't start as well as they needed to after Renshaw was bowled out on a leg-before-wicket (LBW) decision. He only managed to score five runs after just eight overs to leave Australia at 1 for 27.

In came Usman Khawaja. Could he salvage the Aussie efforts? Probably -- he's a bloody good cricketer. He only saw six deliveries at the crease however, before a misjudged sweep shot on a Shakib Al Hasan-bowled ball caught the top edge of Khawaja's bat. Out for just a run.

Australia were then left struggling just as much, if not more, than its first innings at just 2 for 28 -- and the hill towards a win seemed to only be getting bigger and bigger.

Luckily, Warner dug in late in the day -- managing to score 75 runs off of 96 balls before stumps on day three. As it stands, that is his highest score in Asia since scoring a century on the subcontinent almost three years ago.